


Exaisios

by titaniaeli



Series: fic ideas dump [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Soul Bond, fic idea dump, might not continue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2018-12-12 09:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11734494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniaeli/pseuds/titaniaeli
Summary: The legendary bird summon Fenghuang was a fabled tale told to the children of those who dwelled within the Fire Country. It is a symbol of high virtue and loyalty, a mythical creature that was said to have soared amongst the skies during the time of the Sage of the Six Paths.One chilly night, a drowning shinobi found his life saved by a huge... flaming bird.





	1. Chapter 1

_Cold._

_So cold._

Shisui used to wonder how he would die. He knew he would die a shinobi death though. The life of an assassin was an unkind one, much less a shinobi who had been born and raised in a time of war.

Dying of old age was a pipe dream to most.

He always knew he would die for Konoha.

Itachi’s screams still echoed in his head.  _Shisui, Shisui, Shisui!_ Falling was graceless, dying was painful. He wished he could stretch out his hand to catch Itachi’s hand, but—he had made his choice.

He had entrusted his will to his best friend, and he would die quietly, gracefully, and disappeared into the shadows with none the wiser of the truth of his death.

_Cold, cold, hurts, it hurts. It’s so cold..._

His bodily instinct was to gulp for air, his weakening limbs fighting desperately in the icy water, but it was a futile struggle. He was already dying anyway.

_But why does it have to be so **cold**?_

His dying breaths rattled in his chest, only for his body to spasm violently as water rushed through his lungs.

A flash of heat enveloped him suddenly, so hot it was nearly scalding. His flesh felt like it was going to peel right off his bones, but he reached for the heat anyway. The water steamed around his body, his skin blistering.

He reached out in the endless darkness and felt the fire burned him alive.

 

* * *

The immortal being had heard the call.

It was a scream in their mind, a pled for help, for salvation. They couldn’t help but answer the call.        

Hagoromo would tease them for being sentimental, but the little human was familiar, like an old song they have heard a long time ago, a gentle melody being played on the well-worn strings of the koto.

They missed humanity, and it has been so long...

And they have always been fond of loyalty and self-sacrifice in a human. They batted their wings and swooped down, parting the clouds and sending tendrils of flames to streak across the night sky. The river smoked instantly as they descended, the intensity of the flames so strong that the water immediately steamed.

_Call for me, fledgling._

The human  _reached out_ , as if he had heard their whisper.

There was no fanfare, no flashy lights, just the murmur of a bond sliding into place as their fire made its mark on the human’s flesh. Suddenly, they could hear  _their_  little human’s thoughts, his desperation and fear.

_He’s theirs now. **Theirs**._

And their little fledgling was afraid. That was simple enough of a matter to rectify…

They wrapped their talons around the human’s waist and soared from the river. Swathing their wings around their human in a gesture of comfort, the flames licked harmlessly across burned skin.

This human— _Shisui_ , the name came easily to their mind—has been hurt by one of his people. So terribly young, hollowed out by his responsibilities. The boy shook and trembled in their talons, his skin chilled from the icy river.

They let their flames burned his cold and pain away.


	2. Chapter 2

The curtains were pale blue. There was a vase filled with flowers sitting on the table beside his bed. From his position, he could vaguely make out white peonies patterning over the ceramic. Outside the window, it was dark.

The whole room was dark, doused in shadows.

He shouldn’t be able to see.

He tried to sit up, but his whole body _ached_ in protest. There was something prickling at the back of his head, restless energy shifting beneath his skin.

He shouldn’t be able to _see._

There was no time to ponder over the absurdity of his sight, as he sensed a movement in the corner of his peripheral vision. He rolled over instantly, taking down the IV stand and ripping the drip out of his left arm.

His chakra wasn’t restrained, but it was incredibly low. He barely managed to replace his own body with a shadow clone before a kunai sunk into the fake’s chest. He landed on the cold floor and swung the IV stand at his assailant.

There was a brief scuffle where the two fought over dominance. But he soon found himself weakening as the struggle continued on. His assassin had him on his back, a hand around his throat as he gasped wanly. He saw a flash of silver above him, and tossed a genjutsu in desperation. Quickly weaving together an illusion was easy feat for a shinobi of his calibre, even without the necessary hand signs, but he underestimated his chakra exhaustion. The sudden drain in his chakra reserves sent his head spinning, and he had to focus on not choking on his own vomit.

His inattention allowed the assassin to shake off the genjutsu. There was a hand holding his head back, gripping onto his hair as a kunai was positioned below his left eye.

_No, no, stop—_

There was a flash of memory that struck him unbalanced. Danzo’s hand reaching out towards his face, fingers digging deep into his skull to rip his right eye out, the agony that rippled across his face _._

Shisui _screamed_.

And the restless energy that has been creasing beneath his skin roared to life. He was momentarily blinded by a flash of light and a wave of heat crashing over him.

By the time he managed to regain his senses, the hospital room was in ruins, his assassin’s charred body was smoking in the corner and there was a giant red bird on fire curled around his body.

When the Hokage and the ANBU appeared, he wasn’t sure who was more shocked at the confusing scene, but he didn’t have time to wonder further as he blissfully passed out in the embrace of the flaming bird.

* * *

 

Uchiha Shisui should be dead. From what Itachi had reported, Shisui had taken his own life and gifted one of his eyes to his younger cousin.

Uchiha Shisui should be dead.

But that does not explain why— _how_ the hell he had turned up on the doorsteps of the hospital a week after his own death _(a day after the Uchiha clan massacre)._ That does not explain how, despite the burns on his right arm and the major chakra exhaustion, he was unscathed.

It especially does not explain how Hiruzen had come upon a scene out of a folk tale after an explosion occurred in one of the hospital rooms in the east wing. A _mini_ explosion, but it definitely does not explain anything about the charred corpse and the flaming bird _snuggling_ Uchiha Shisui’s unconscious body like the shinobi was one of its chicks.

Hiruzen felt his headache intensified.

“Hokage-sama, your—your orders?” Boar asked, hesitance in his deep voice. His ANBU were all tempered steel forged from fire. Nothing fazed them much, especially for a war veteran like Boar. To hear one of his ANBU sounding this disturbed left the Hokage shaken.

“Take the body to autopsy. I want to find out who tried to attack Shisui-kun.” Hiruzen commanded, although he already has a sneaking suspicion. Although charred, he could still make out the bone white armour of an ANBU operative.

Or, something _similar_ to the uniform of his ANBU.

He turned his gaze back towards the flaming bird. Even from the short distance, he could feel the scorching heat. Sweat rolled uncomfortably down his back, making his robes stuck unpleasantly to his skin. The heat was almost painful. It’s a miracle that Shisui remained unburned in the fiery embrace.

“I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage of Konoha.” He introduced, lowering himself into a short bow.

The bird’s crimson eyes were fixated on him, unblinking and full of sharp intelligence and ancient wisdom. This was not a common bird, although there was nothing common about a huge bird on fire in the first place.

He had studied intensively throughout his life, and he had especially read up on the legendary summons. One of them was the Fenghuang, the crimson phoenix said to have rule the skies back in the days of the Sage of the Six Paths—or like some history records wrote, perhaps even further back. He has seen drawings of the legendary summon depicted on various scrolls, but they all paled in comparison to the real thing.

Then, slowly but surely, the Fenghuang in front of him inclined its regal head. With a swipe of one huge wing, the bird vanished, leaving Shisui slumped unconscious on the floor alone.

 


End file.
